Described below is a method for communication in a wireless communication system after a subscriber station is switched on.
In wireless communication systems, messages comprising, e.g., voice information, image information, video information, SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) or other data are transmitted by electromagnetic waves via a wireless interface between sending and receiving stations. Depending on the actual configuration of the wireless communication system, the stations here can be different types of subscriber stations or network-side wireless stations such as repeaters, wireless access points or base stations. In a mobile wireless communication system, at least some of the subscriber stations are mobile radio stations. The emission of the electromagnetic waves takes place using carrier frequencies in the frequency band which is provided for the system concerned.
Mobile wireless communication systems are frequently designed as cellular systems, e.g. in accordance with the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standard, with a network infrastructure of base stations, entities for monitoring and controlling the base stations and further network-side entities, for example. In addition to these wide-area (supralocal) cellular hierarchical wireless networks featuring, wireless local-area networks (WLANs, Wireless Local Area Networks) also exist having a radio coverage area which is normally much more limited in spatial terms. Examples of various standards for WLANs include HiperLAN, DECT, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth and WTAM.
The access from subscriber stations to the shared transmission medium is governed by multiple access/multiplex methods (Multiple Access, MA) in the case of wireless communication systems. Using these multiple accesses, the transmission medium can be divided between the subscriber stations in the time range (Time Division Multiple Access, TDMA), in the frequency range (Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), in the code range (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) or in the space range (Space Division Multiple Access, SDMA). Combinations of multiple access methods are also possible, e.g. a frequency range multiple access method can be combined with a code range multiple access method.